Sprint in talks with Japan's Softbank, may sell stake in company

Sprint has disclosed that they're in talks with Softbank, Japan’s third-largest mobile carrier, about Softbank potentially acquiring of a large stake in Sprint. In a statement this morning, Sprint announced that the talks primarily regard a “substantial investment” in Sprint by Softbank, and a potential transaction could change who controls Sprint. Such a move would give Softbank an instant national foothold in the United States, and help Sprint financially. They would not be the first internationl carrier to come to the U.S. either. Vodafone, the second-largest carrier in the world, owns a large stake in Verizon Wireless, and T-Mobile is famously owned by Deutsche Telekom.

Sprint has been the thrid-place carrier in the U.S. for years, and though a Softbank investment would not change that, at least in the short term, it might allow Sprint a bit of breathing room, as well as more resources to increase the deployment of their LTE network. What this means for a potential Sprint bid on MetroPCS is unknown.

If Sprint can at least stay on track with Network Vision (their network modernization program) then they will do just that. I hope that a purchase by SoftBank would only mean even more improvements for Sprint's network.